Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 6 March 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

EU Finances Post-2020: European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources

3:15 pm

Mr. Günther Oettinger:

Take the 2% goal agreed to by NATO members, not by me. The figure of 2% of GDP was agreed to by Defence and Foreign Affairs Ministers, NATO members and governments. If all of the EU 28 were NATO members and had a GDP of €15,000 billion per year, it would mean a figure of €300 billion. At the moment we are investing €10 billion; therefore, there is a gap of €90 billion which could be closed by having a figure of 1% or 1.5% on a European level. If these European programmes succeed, activate and realise added value, figures of €1 billion and €500 million should be a starting point, not the whole story.